Report on missing Flight 370 to be released next week

Apr. 24, 2014
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Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak / Adem Altan, AFP/Getty Images

by John Bacon, USA TODAY

by John Bacon, USA TODAY

Debris that washed ashore on the southern coast of western Australia was not from missing Malaysia Airlines Flight 370, Australian authorities said Thursday.

The determination from the Joint Agency Coordination Center was another setback in the search for the Beijing-bound Boeing 777 that disappeared with 239 people aboard on March 8, less than an hour after taking off from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

The debris, found this week, had once again raised hopes that the search would soon end. The items had marked the first report of suspected flight debris in weeks - and the first since the detection of what were believed to be signals from the flight's missing data and voice "black box" recorders. Those signals helped authorities to dramatically decrease the size of the search area.

Efforts to find the boxes or anything from the plane, however, thus far have failed.

Also Thursday, Malaysia Prime Minister Najib Razak said a preliminary report on the jet's mysterious disappearance will be released next week. Najib told CNN the report already has been sent to the International Civil Aviation Organization.

The report includes a recommendation that global aviation officials track all commercial aircraft, CNN reported. Such recommendations would mirror those made after Air France Flight 447 disappeared in 2009.

Angry loved ones of those missing on Flight 370 have been pressing Malaysian authorities for weeks, demanding more detail on how and why the flight disappeared. Najib did offer a tidbit Thursday.

A key question has been whether military radar tracked the plane as it apparently turned back and flew over Malaysia.

"The military radar ... tracked an aircraft, which did turn back, but they were not sure whether it was MH370," Najib told CNN. "What they were sure of was that the aircraft was not deemed to be hostile."